Friday, 6 March 2009

It was a stormy night. Admiral Hank Wannabe, commander in chief of the US Army special forces, was heading across the Atlantic with his men on a secret mission to attack south west France. Due to budget constraints aroused by 'le crise' the authorities had only filled the warship with enough fuel to carry its full cargo halfway. At that point there were two choices. Turn back or determine an alternative course of action. Being ever entrepreneurial, the American war hero chose the latter.

We awoke this morning to a beach crowded by gigantic sawn logs, plastic containers of US branded DIY products, barrels of liquor and dead fish. I can only surmise that this is the advance party for the imminent invasion. They have clearly offloaded their balast after consulting the cosmos and the storm has eagerly carried materials for makeshift camps, food and beverage onto the beaches to await the troops. This has enabled Admiral Hank to retain enough fuel to carry his men onwards.

St Jean de Luz is on a knife edge. All eyes scan the horizon desperately hoping they won't see the stars and stripes steaming towards them. It is a black day in Basque history.

What other cause for the beach debris could there be? The storm came from the direction of the mid Atlantic, beyond that lies America. We will not go down easily, for now is the time when we few, we happy few, we band of brothers must fight them on the beaches...

Basque Bylines

Traversing the planet is always good for the soul but so is returning home. Following ten months in Outer Mongolia a Scotsman and his wife return from the Steppe. Back in St Jean de Luz the sun still sits high in the sky, Gateau Basque remains as tempting as ever and life in the Basque Country moves forever onwards at its own luxurious pace. Having answered one important question, one remains:

What makes gateau Basque taste so good?

[What made Chinggis Khaan so darned angry? Nothing rhymed with his name which as a budding poet grated heavily and have you ever tried to run the world's greatest ever empire from a ger on the remote Steppe surrounded by camels at -40C?]